The best BBQ Delivery Boxes in the UK from small sustainable British Farms
Are you looking to order from the best home delivery food boxes in the UK? Fresh meat, fish and veg that tastes great, is better for you and good for the planet? This article has you covered.
Whether you’re looking to make hearty meals throughout the week, fresh fish for Friday dinner, meat for Sunday lunch, or simply to top up on your organic cupboard staples, it’s really never been easier. Nowadays you can order all the best produce online, with the click of a button.
The real challenge is finding the smaller, independent producers online to order from… and that’s where we come in.
We’re sussing out the best farms, fisheries and suppliers across the UK. And we’re letting you in on our favourites.
Our selection exclusively features suppliers who produce high-quality and delicious food. And they do so through high-welfare and eco-friendly approaches. The people behind these food boxes are committed to production practices that are kinder to animals, the planet and to us as consumers. They are organic, and/or free-range and/or regenerative.
It’s worth noting that each supplier offers a whole range of products, not just what we’ve picked out or mentioned. So, if you like the sound of one then click on the link to find what else they have available.
Now, without further ado, here are our top picks…
THE BEST ONLINE MEAT BOXES
field&flower for the best subscription meat box
field&flower specialise in delivering free-range and/or grass-fed British meat and locally caught fish straight to your door.
It was co-founded by fifth-generation farmer, James Field, and food-lover, James Flower (field&flower, geddit?). While Field assists in the farming of their produce, Flower helps source and approve all other suppliers. field&flower partner with some of the best independent West Country farmers and fishermen who share their value of high animal welfare and sustainability.
Operating as a subscription service means field&flower are able to source to order. To minimise waste they ask their customers to confirm their order five days before delivery. If there is excess, this is sent to FareShare South West to provide meals for vulnerable people.
Helen Browningâs for the best BBQ meat boxes
Helen Browningâs Organic is named after farmer Helen Browning, who switched to farming organically at the family-run Eastbrook Farm in Wiltshire in 1986 â way before organic farming was trendy.
They offer a range of meat bundles featuring premium organic beef and pork products from their free-ranging, dairy-bred, grass-fed animals.
The farm and the meat produced are 100% Soil Association organic certified and Helen says:
âI see first-hand the difference farming my land organically makes â from more bees and hedgerows to contented, healthy animals, to lots of people gainfully working here and enthusiastic customers.â
We highly recommend trying one of their organic bundles, which start from ÂŁ20.
Fosse Meadows for the best slow-grown chicken
The USP of Fosse Meadows chicken is that they are grown to 81 days. Why is this significant? Well, an average supermarket chicken is grown to around 35 days, so a Fosse chicken lives more than twice as long.
This allows them to grow at a natural rate, antibiotic-free. They are also free-ranging and foraging in meadows that arenât sprayed with fertilisers or pesticides.
When it comes to taste this means the chicken has a deeper flavour and firmer texture. It makes for a very satisfying and nutritious eating experience, indeed.
Pipers Farm for the best free-range chicken
Pipers Farm is widely recognised for its succulent meats and creative cuts â and has won a whole host of accolades to prove it, from Great Taste Awards to its Food Made Good accreditation.
Based in Devon, the 50-acre family farm has been a front-runner in sustainably produced meat for more than 30 years. They butcher all their meat on site. Plus, they work with 40 other family farms in the surrounding areas. The result? They offer a range of wholesome natural food that has been grown with a respect for nature.
One roast chicken from here will easily serve a family of four. Plus, youâll also have enough left over for a curry and to use the carcass to create a tasty soup or stock. And tasty is the word, because this genuinely free-range chicken has a depth of flavour youâll have forgotten they can have. This is the case across the board with everything Pipers Farm has to offer.
THE BEST SEAFOOD DELIVERY
Sole of Discretion for the best fresh fish
Sole of Discretion is a collective of small-scale fishers fishing out of Plymouth harbour, delivering a range of high-quality and delicious fish to your door.
They exclusively employ sustainable fishing methods which minimise the damage done to the marine environment: pole and line, using size-specific static nets, or using lobster and crab pots.
They ensure everything that gets caught can be used or sold so that waste is minimal.
So you can choose from a whole range of beautiful species that arenât generally stocked in supermarkets. Thereâs ling, pollack, pouting, ray, as well as crab meat and hand-dived scallops. Orders that come to more than ÂŁ55 are delivered pretty much anywhere in the UK free of charge. You can also find the fish on Abel & Cole.
Straight from the sea and delivered to your door. You donât get much fresher than this.
THE BEST CUPBOARD STAPLES
Organico for the best organic ingredients
Thereâs organic and then thereâs Organico.
The foundations of so many delicious, wholesome and nutritious meals are pasta, rice and tin tomatoes. Organico know this, so find the farmers who are laser-focused on making the best staple ingredients.
Our go-to for all those trusty cupboard staples. Organico products are farmed in a way that nurtures the soil and communities theyâre produced in.
Often, these passionate farmers, local co-operatives and family businesses take control of the whole process, turning the seed in the field into the product you cook with. Itâs this grower-maker philosophy that makes Organico products different.
And, of course, itâs a given that the products are all organic â itâs right there in the name.
Fish4ever for the best tinned fish
Organico is also a provider of the UK’s most sustainable tinned tuna, Fish4Ever.
For more than 20 years, Fish4Ever has brought the idea of organic values to fish sustainability (fish canât be certified organic because theyâre wild in the sea) with their truly ethical and sustainable canned fish.
Their strapline is: âcanned fish you can trustâ. And their commitment to sustainability extends to land, people as well as the sea.
Fish4Ever use small boats (pole and line tuna vessels and small day boats), local fishers and very selective equipment. They operate in precise parts of the sea to take only what is needed. Their tuna is sourced from an Azores fishery, which has been described by the International Pole and Line Federation as the greenest fishery in the world.
Conscious of how intensive farming on land pollutes river systems and coastal waters, they are the only canned fish brand in the UK to insist on using organic land ingredients (i.e. olive oil) in their products. Kudos to that.
Main image: Riverford Organic
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